The Adventures of Mr. Mocker eBook

XV

PETER RABBIT AND UNC’ BILLY POSSUM KEEP WATCH

“Now,” said Peter Rabbit, as they settled
themselves to watch, “we’ll see for ourselves
whether Sammy Jay and Sticky-toes have been telling
the truth, or if they have been dreaming. If
we hear Sammy Jay’s voice down here in the alders
to-night, we ought to be able to see who is using it,
for pretty soon the moon will be up, and then we can
see easily.”

Unc’ Billy Possum didn’t say anything,
not a word, but if Peter Rabbit had noticed Unc’
Billy’s eyes, he would have seen a very knowing
look there.

The fact is, Unc’ Billy was thinking of the
time when he thought he had heard the voice of an
old friend of his from way down South, and he was
beginning to suspect that he had been right, and that
his old friend really was somewhere in the Green Forest.

“Ah reckon he sho’ly is, and he’s
plumb full of his ol’ tricks, just like he used
to be,” muttered Unc’ Billy.

“What’s that?” asked Peter, pricking
up his ears.

“Nothing, nothing, Brer Rabbit, nothing at all.
Ah has a habit of just talking foolishness to mahself,”
replied Unc’ Billy.

Peter looked at him sharply, but Unc’ Billy’s
shrewd little face looked so innocent that Peter was
ashamed to doubt what Unc’ Billy said.

“I guess that we better not talk any more, for
fear we might be heard and have our watch for nothing,”
said Peter.

Unc’ Billy agreed, and side by side they sat
as still as if they were made of wood or stone.
The black shadows came early to the alders beside the
Laughing Brook, and soon it was very dark, so dark
that Peter and Unc’ Billy, whose eyes are meant
for seeing in the dark as well as in the light, had
hard work to make out much. It grew later and
later, and still there was not a sound of the voice
of either Sammy Jay or Sticky-toes the Tree Toad.
Peter began to get hungry. The more he thought
about it, the hungrier he grew. He was just about
ready to give it up, when the moonbeams began to creep
in among the alder trees just as they had crept through
the Green Forest the night that Sammy Jay kept awake
all night.

The moonbeams crept farther and farther into the thicket
of alder trees and bushes where Peter Rabbit and Unc’
Billy Possum were hiding. Then it was that they
heard the voice of Sticky-toes the Tree Toad.
At any rate, Peter was sure that it was the voice
of Sticky-toes until a fierce, angry whisper came
down to him from the branch of an alder just over his
head. Peter looked up. There sat Sticky-toes
himself, but his voice was coming from an alder on
the other side of the Laughing Brook.

“Do you hear that? Do you hear that?
There’s my voice over there, and here I am here!
What do you make of it?” whispered Sticky-toes.

Peter didn’t know what to make of it. All
he could do was to gaze at Sticky-toes as if he thought
Sticky-toes was a ghost. Just then the voice
of Sammy Jay, or what sounded for all the world like
Sammy’s voice, screamed “Thief! thief!
thief!” from the very spot where they had just
heard the voice of Sticky-toes.